Friday, April 30, 2010

SPEED Warms-Up Richmond Crowd For ESPN

It's always interesting when SPEED and ESPN share a day of NASCAR racing. Friday at Richmond International Raceway, the networks are at it again. SPEED is set to offer seven hours of NASCAR programming before handing off to ESPN2 for the Nationwide Series race.

The big boys from NASCAR on FOX are up first. Mike Joy, Larry McReynolds and Darrell Waltrip start the day at 12PM ET with Sprint Cup Series practice. In between the sessions at 1:30PM Steve Byrnes hosts an episode of NASCAR Live.

Randy Pemberton is with Byrnes on the SPEED Stage while Hermie Sadler and Bob Dillner handle the reporting duties from the garage area. This program is usually very interesting as the interviews from crew chiefs and drivers can indicate in which direction a team is going as far as dialing-in the car.

The NASCAR on FOX team again handles the second session for the Cup Series. Byrnes comes back at 3:30PM with NASCAR Live while the Nationwide cars are being lined-up for qualifying. This is a weekend where both qualifying sessions are on SPEED.

It will be Kyle Petty and Randy Pemberton in the booth for Nationwide Series qualifying at 4PM with Joy. Normally, Hermie Sadler, Byrnes and Jeff Hammond handle this session. On this Friday, however, Hammond and Byrnes will be busy taping the Trackside program while Sadler will be trying to qualify his own car for the Nationwide Series race.

Joy's long Friday finally comes to a close as he hosts Sprint Cup Series qualifying at 5:30PM with Waltrip and McReynolds. This trio has a lot of fun with these telecasts. Perhaps this week, some of that fun might translate over to the NASCAR on FOX Saturday night race coverage. FOX needs some energy in the booth right now.

ESPN has some new faces in new places this weekend. Allen Bestwick has moved into the TV booth to call the race while Marty Reid handles an IndyCar telecast for ABC in Kansas. Rusty Wallace and Andy Petree will be the analysts.

Nicole Briscoe comes over from the NASCAR Now program to anchor the Nationwide Series pre-race show that begins at 7PM. That is a new pic of Briscoe above courtesy of ESPN. You can click on it to see it full-size.

With Jamie Little and Vince Welch also covering IndyCars, Mike Massaro will return to his old stomping grounds and anchor the pit road team alongside Dr. Jerry Punch and Dave Burns. Shannon Spake is up at ESPN handling the NASCAR Now duties this week.

This post will serve to host the comments of the daytime coverage on SPEED. There will be a new post up for the Nationwide Series race on ESPN2. To add your comment about SPEED's Friday TV from Richmond, just click on the comments button below. This is a family-friendly website, please keep that in mind when posting.

21 comments:

sounds like another busy day for the media at Richmond. I'll miss the Nationwide and practice stuff since I won't be home, but I'm going to try and get home in time to watch the Sprint cup qualifying on TV. Since Sirius radio no longer covers it, except by providing updates during whatever other programming they have on the Nascar channel, I can't listen to it in the car when I'm driving. I really hate that Sirius has bailed out on the coverage from the track -- I'm really searching for reasons to renew my subscription when it comes due and honestly I'm not finding that many.

I'm looking forward to the Nationwide race coverage tonight by ESPN and absolutely dreading Fox's coverage of the Cup race on Saturday. what a difference a year and some personnel changes can make as to whether or not its fun to watch a race broadcast.

Gina, to give credit (or blame, in this case) where it is due, it's not that SIRIUS is not carrying the radio coverage of qualifying, it's that there IS no radio coverage of qualifying anymore for them to carry.

Both MRN and PRN have ceased their qualifying broadcasts because not enough terrestrial stations were carrying it to make it economically feasible. This move enables them (MRN/PRN) to save $ by not having their talent show up until race day.

we haven't had radio qualifying for years anywhere around here...I didn't realize they had stopped doing it altogether. I suppose it makes sense as it's not a particularly exciting thing to listen to on the radio. I like to watch it so I can kind of get caught up on who is in a different paint scheme, who is entered that may have an interesting story, or maybe how fast the track consitions are and such. I suppose you have to be more than a casual fan to care about that.

thanks, allisong, for that info. As you say, I'm sure that it does indeed save MRN/PRN money by not having to be there until raceday.

So in other words, NASCAR's ratings have fallen for RADIO as well. Interesting.

Sorry, JD, I know this is off-topic -- the thing is that I subscribe to Sirius because of its NASCAR coverage and I realize that I use my radio less and less since they, along with the TV broadcasters, have succumbed to NASCAR's "positive messages only" - even when it is obviously BS and the fans know it.

Speed may have all this race day coverage but I wonder what the ratings are for it in 2010? -- once upon a time I would have set my DVR to catch it all when I got home, but I don't do that any more.

I have been a NASCAR fan since the King ran hemi's and, at least since the 1970's, there has been almost a tradition in NASCAR of whining in the garage - the Ford has a better nose, or the Chevy has a better deck lid, or the Plymouth has a better cup holder. NASCAR is far from the only business that has reminded the people involved with it to give some thought to the potential effect before saying something. I do not recall ever seeing anyone ever state that anyone in NASCAR ever told the drivers or crews to never say anything negative - just to be aware that what they say has an effect. It is clear to me that the majority of the media is going to write negatively about NASCAR routinely and those making a living from the sport need to be aware that their comments can be used to harm the sport. I am not saying that anyone in the sport should not be honest, but it never hurts to remind people to think before spouting off.

I'll be at the track for the race. Will let you all know how it compares to the broadcast. Oh, and I hope Speed carries Denny Hamlin's Short Track charity race from last night, held at Southside Speedway. Standing room only crowd, and the best racing I've seen in a blue moon. A 22 yo Virginia guy beat Hamlin on the last restart and won. Harvick, Labonte, Logano, all out with wrecked cars.

Richard, I agree that its important for people to think before they speak, but IMO all the Nascar coverage from all the various media has gone to saying absolutely nothing of value about anything and that is as detrimental to the sport as speaking only negative things.

Like you I've followed NASCAR for a long time and I remember the days of the constant haggling over which manufacturer got what concession so that they had an advantage over another manufacturer. Now we have "parity" and they are running kit cars. Honestly, I would rather have a car on the track that I can identify with and enjoy the arguments that used to take place. That was half the fun.

We have more Nascar coverage than ever but less substance as far as I'm concerned.

I'm happy that Speed is doing the right thing and tape delaying Trackside until 11 PM so they can cover the full day of practice and qualifying live. I hope they put the egos aside and finally do the same thing at Texas in fall even though it's not "their" race.

I think they quit broadcasting qualifying for an obvious reason. The top 35 rule has made qualifying almost meaningless except for pit selection and the go or go homers. The pole winner doesn't even get a special race any longer.

MRN stopped broadcasting qualifying for a number of reasons, 1 is budget cutbacks, 2 is that the local affiliates have started to not see the worthwhileness in airing qualifying so with less and less markets carrying it, it was a losing cause for the radio networks. At least how I understood it being explained a while back ago.